Old gas stations

Excellent!!!

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This is a photo from the 1950s of the Williams' family Gulf service station that was just a few blocks from where I grew up. The building is still there today, but now it only sells tires.



Here's a picture of the same station today.

North side of Jacksonville, Florida...


Can't remember where....?


The station in the second photo wasn't original, but the sign looks to be....the white station is in the old neighborhood where my wife lived as a child.

Rob

Great pix ABG and Rob. I'm especially keen on the old porcelain paneled ones like Bomber Generals top photo. I notice in the modern pic they appear to be stripped off, unfortunately that's all to common. Can you imagine the expense of restoring all those panels?

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It's increasingly rare to find a completely unmolested porcelain box station. The "Highway beautification" movement in the sixties killed thousands of them -- the oil companies that were using them were pressured into "facelifting and tophatting" them by replacing the panels with fake masonry or cedar shingles, and covering the flat roof with a fake mansard or Colonial roof, sometimes even topped by a fake steeple. By the mid-seventies, it was very rare to see a porcelain box in completely original form.

Those that have survived to the present day are living on borrowed time. Those panels can bring a nice sum at a scrap metal yard, and a lot of small-engine-repair/motorcycle/tire shops that used to be porcelain-box gas stations have already taken advantage of this.

Our place was built with clapboard siding but was painted to simulate the Texaco porcelain-box design.



In 1962 a new service bay was built and the entire building was sheathed in porcelain, which it kept until it closed in 1981, and for twenty-five years beyond that in various convenience store guises.



The current owners scrapped the metal siding in 2006, and covered the building with cheap wooden board siding painted a sickly shade of blue. Disgusting.

Lizzie's post made me think of two other similar experiences. Living in NYC, I see that the beautiful old architecture is constantly under attack from the build it new, bigger modern army. To be sure, and thankfully, there is a preservation society that helps, but the battle is one where every loss diminishes the old architecture stock by one; whereas, every victory only holds the status quo for an indeterminate time.

The first thing is that I've seen several pre-war buildings that were covered with a new "modern" exterior in the fifties or sixties. I've looked up the architectural records (now, wonderfully on line) and one building I have in mind was a gorgeous red brick apartment house built in the 1920s that had angles, interesting masonry and artful brickwork that gave the building charm and character that was covered (masonry and all decorative details included) and squared off with white bricks - my guess would be this was done in the 1950s at the height of the mid-Century modern, square white-brick craze. Breaks my heart every time I walk by it. And there are several buildings that I know this happened to.

The other thing that Lizzie made me think about are the old newsstands that were everywhere in NYC. Many were from the 30s and 40s, made of wood and in the iconic style that can be seen in movies from that era where the magazines and newspapers covered every space and the news vendor sat inside the stand on an elevated platform. Mayor Bloomberg decided he didn't like these and wanted everything new and sleek (like the "highway beautification" initiative Lizzie speaks of) and, over the course of the last several years, most have been torn down and replaced by these ascetic, look alike, angle-less stand of glass and chrome (ugly, characterless and generic).

Of course, the iconic one right outside our window was torn down and replaced. Early one Saturday morning, about a year ago, a backhoe, a dump truck and several workers showed up and, unceremoniously, the backhoe just started smashing the old stand down and the workers threw the pieces in the dump truck. Half a day later, it was gone. Then over the next several weeks, the new atrocity was put up in stages. Just writing this is painful as it is one of the worst architectural disasters I have seen and I had a front row seat to this one. Then again, this is a mayor who thinks he should (and did) dictate the maximum size cup or bottle that someone can buy a soda in. It's one thing to see the natural advancement of time and economics replace these buildings, but to pro-actively make it a city policy is disgraceful.

Fading Fast said:

Lizzie's post made me think of two other similar experiences. Living in NYC, I see that the beautiful old architecture is constantly under attack from the build it new, bigger modern army. To be sure, and thankfully, there is a preservation society that helps, but the battle is one where every loss diminishes the old architecture stock by one; whereas, every victory only holds the status quo for an indeterminate time.

Click to expand...

What's interesting about the "Highway Beautification" movement is that it was largely driven by middle-class suburban people who wanted the whole world to look like Levittown. And now the children of those people are leaders in the Historic Preservation movement, trying to undo the homogenization wrought by their parents.

The best thing that could have happened to American aesthetics is for William Levitt to have been hit by a truck in 1945.

Here is an old Pure Oil Station that my friend Ernie restored to become his law office. Yes, he is locally known as Ernietheattorney. His library is located in what used to be the lift bay.



AF

Fading Fast said:

The other thing that Lizzie made me think about are the old newsstands that were everywhere in NYC. Many were from the 30s and 40s, made of wood and in the iconic style that can be seen in movies from that era where the magazines and newspapers covered every space and the news vendor sat inside the stand on an elevated platform. Mayor Bloomberg decided he didn't like these and wanted everything new and sleek (like the "highway beautification" initiative Lizzie speaks of) and, over the course of the last several years, most have been torn down and replaced by these ascetic, look alike, angle-less stand of glass and chrome (ugly, characterless and generic).

Of course, the iconic one right outside our window was torn down and replaced. Early one Saturday morning, about a year ago, a backhoe, a dump truck and several workers showed up and, unceremoniously, the backhoe just started smashing the old stand down and the workers threw the pieces in the dump truck. Half a day later, it was gone. Then over the next several weeks, the new atrocity was put up in stages. Just writing this is painful as it is one of the worst architectural disasters I have seen and I had a front row seat to this one. Then again, this is a mayor who thinks he should (and did) dictate the maximum size cup or bottle that someone can buy a soda in. It's one thing to see the natural advancement of time and economics replace these buildings, but to pro-actively make it a city policy is disgraceful.

Click to expand...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/nyregion/30newsstand.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

LizzieMaine said:

The best thing that could have happened to American aesthetics is for William Levitt to have been hit by a truck in 1945.

Click to expand...

So true, on so many levels.

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V.C. Brunswick said:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/nyregion/30newsstand.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Click to expand...

That is the exact style of the one they put in next to my apartment house. Prior, there was a classic 1940s one - split wood, dark green, worn, newspapers everywhere - right out of a TCM movie. Breaks my heart.

Atticus Finch said:

Here is an old Pure Oil Station that my friend Ernie restored to become his law office. Yes, he is locally known as Ernietheattorney. His library is located in what used to be the lift bay.

AF

Click to expand...

That's the one in New Bern, isn't it, Atticus? Around the corner/down the street from the Tryon Palace?



Rob

A few more from the collection....

On old US 41 near Jennings, Florida...



In Bainbridge, Georgia....



Also in Bainbridge....


Rob

Ghostsoldier said:

That's the one in New Bern, isn't it, Atticus? Around the corner/down the street from the Tryon Palace?

View attachment 6666 View attachment 6667

Rob

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Hi Rob. It is. At the corner of Hancock (Railroad) Street and Pollock Street. I think Ernie inherited the property when his father passed and, at the time, it was in terrible condition. I remember that he spent a bunch of time and effort restoring it.

AF

It's beautiful...so much so, that my wife actually admitted she would live in it, were it converted to a house.

There's another vacant one up the road in downtown Washington, NC, that would be an excellent candidate for a restoration...I posted a pic of it here, earlier.

Rob

LizzieMaine said:

The best thing that could have happened to American aesthetics is for William Levitt to have been hit by a truck in 1945.

Click to expand...

:eusa_clap

In Pensacola FL.

That one's a beauty.

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Orange, California
December 5, 2013
A derelict 1920s gas station. For a time in the 1990s it was a florist shop. Turns out it was owned by a friend of one of my housemates!

I remember the classic Texaco station that was just a block over from my Grandparents house. It had been there since the 1930's I believe, certainly was there when my mother was growing up in the 40's. The same mechanic was still there to fix anything that moved in his one service bay with pit and wooden doors on rollers, who had been there when she was young. When I was 4 or so I thought it wass very convenient that he carried "Fire Chief" gas, as the local volunteer fire hall was located right across the street!

Alas, the site was shut down when he retired, and replaced in the mid 80's with a medical office. Like some of the above posters, whenever I smell vintage grease or hear that clang it takes me back.

I had a more modern (late 1950's), garage two blocks from home up untill 6 years ago. Currently a vacant lot while they do the environmental mop up, the phone booth was outside the fence and survived active until last January, when our phone service finally shut it down after another vandal attack. The policy here is if no business to anchor the phone, they get to stay until they fail. Now all that is left is the non managed hedge, and the mail box which has a solid future at the corner, as the last piece of street furniture (unless they restore bus service). From there I drove about a mile to the next full service with garage station, which departed us 4 years ago. I currently go to the last full serve, chain service station in the city, about 20 minutes away in light traffic, and still get to hear the ding ding sound as I pull in. They are a private owned site, do thier own tanks so are likely to be around for years, the owner is my age and his son has every intention of carrying on the family establishment, which would make them the fourth generation at that site. His dream is to strip the building back to the original 1940`s architecture, which would only make them more popular in their area and draw the classic car crowd.

Thanks for creating this great thread.

JFriday